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Students make their way around campus at UNT in Denton, on Wednesday, March 18, 2015. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News)

Updated at 5:23 p.m.: AUSTIN – An effort to allow “campus carry” has cleared one of its final hurdles, as Senate Republicans on Saturday pushed through the divisive measure to let licensed Texans carry concealed handguns in most state university buildings.

The House on Sunday must still approve the proposal before it can be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott, who is likely to sign it. But by moving quickly in the Senate – where it passed 20-11 – supporters avoided perhaps their biggest threat: a filibuster by Senate Democrats.

The bill, which would go into effect for four-year universities in fall 2016, moved forward only after House and Senate negotiators worked out a deal late Friday to lessen the gun mandates on both public and private universities.

The measure, at the House’s urging, would allow public university presidents increased flexibility to establish some gun-free zones on campus. And the proposal, at the Senate’s request, would allow private schools to totally opt out of the bill’s provisions.

Sen. Brian Birdwell, the bill’s author, said the tweaks didn’t take away from what he’s described as his stand for constitutional, “God-given” rights.

“The bottom line is this: Senate Bill 11 makes concealed carry on Texas college campuses the law of the land, while allowing for very limited, reasonable prohibitions in unique campus locations,” the Granbury Republican said.

And even with the changes – which opponents praised as at least some progress – Democrats reiterated their loud objections. Citing opposition from most university leaders, they said campus carry would create a dangerous mix.

“I have concerns about introducing guns into a university environment already fraught with stress and often fragile emotions,” said Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso.

That deal on so-called “campus carry” would also restore a provision – important to Sen. Brian Birdwell, the Granbury Republican who authored the bill – to allow private colleges and universities the ability to completely opt out of the firearms mandate.

The deal, which would also delay implementation until fall 2016, comes as campus carry backers have rushed to clear up complications with enough time left to avoid procedural hiccups. The House and Senate must still vote, perhaps on Saturday, to approve the deal.

A bipartisan group in the House scrambled the debate this week by pushing to allow public universities more authority over the gun regulations. The Senate’s version of the bill didn’t give public schools any ability to opt out of the measure’s provisions.

“The reality is that our campuses are complex, and no two are alike in regards to the activity that occur on campus,” Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, said this week, when he offered an amendment to let state universities to partially opt out.

Existing state law lets Texans with concealed handgun licenses carry their firearms onto university grounds. But the new legislation would allow those Texans to bring their handguns into dorms, classrooms, cafeterias and many other buildings.

Around 841,500 Texans have a concealed handgun license. That’s about 5 percent of Texans who are 21 or older – the age requirement to get such a license for Texans who are not active or former members of the armed services.

Democratic opponents have cast campus carry as dangerous, arguing that more guns shouldn’t be injected into the complex environment of a university campus. And they’ve highlighted that most university leaders have objected to the proposal.

“Why are we doing this?” Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, said this week. “I’m questioning the reasoning of this bill in the first place.”

But backers – Republicans and a few House Democrats – have countered that the proposal is actually a safety measure aimed at self-defense. Birdwell, in particular, has also said the measure is about standing up for constitutional, “God-given” rights.

“We ought not be limiting a right on public property that the people of Texas own,” he said.

But clearly even some Republicans had reservations about giving public universities no flexibility at all.

Under the conference committee’s agreement, state university presidents would have the ability to declare parts of campus, but not all of it, off-limits to guns. Those schools’ boards of trustees could then vote to amend those rules, if they so choose.

Public schools would also have to submit to the Legislature a written explanation for why they made those decisions.

A group of education budget writers in the House has recommended funding for a raft of new academic buildings on state university and technical college campuses — including seven at Dallas-area schools.

The Appropriations panel’s education subcommittee agreed to spend $250 million over the next two years to pay debt service on tuition revenue bonds, said Rep. Trent Ashby, a Lufkin Republican who heads the subcommittee.

That is enough, it turns out, to issue more than $2.8 billion of bonds to pay for dozens of buildings.

“This was the No. 1 request across the board from institutions of higher learning,” Ashby said of the bonds. “We haven’t done this in nine years,” he said in an interview.

While Ashby said he’s optimistic the full Appropriations Committee will adopt the proposal, it’s unclear if the Senate will go along. House-Senate compromises on the bonds are notoriously fragile, and some conservative commentators who advocate more online learning are critical of spending on bricks and mortar.

However, university presidents and other supporters say at least some of the projects should spur research that attracts companies and high-paying jobs — such as a building to house live animals used in medical experiments at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Under the emerging House budget, Southwestern would receive $80 million of the nearly $110 million it sought for the “vivarium” and academic and laboratory space.

Of the Dallas-area projects, it was tied for getting the most money — $80 million — with an interdisciplinary research building at the osteopathic medical school that anchors the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.

Rep. John Zerwas, pictured here with his daughter and grandchildren on the first day of this year’s session. (AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Jay Janner)

In a possible sign of diminished clout this session for the Dallas-area delegation, the North Texas region won funding of only about $500 million out of about $1 billion requested. Statewide, the percentage of requested dollars granted was much higher.

However, it’s early in the session. Last session, the Dallas area held chairmanships of the Appropriations and Higher Education panels. This session, the region has three of nine seats on Higher Education, though only four of Appropriations’ 27 seats. It had six last session. This session, though, Rep. Helen Giddings, D-Dallas, is vice chairwoman of Ashby’s Appropriations subcommittee.

Tuition revenue bonds pay for campus construction related to academics. The Legislature approves the bonds and pays on the debt through the state budget. But because lawmakers can’t commit a future Legislature to spend money, universities have to guarantee the bonds with student tuition and other revenue, should lawmakers someday balk at paying off bonds themselves.

Ashby said House Higher Education Chairman John Zerwas, R-Richmond, has proposed which building proposals should be financed with the bonds. Last week, Zerwas introduced a bill setting out the favored projects and amounts. It included these local projects:

Speaker Joe Straus, shown taking the oath as the House's leader on Jan. 13, next to his wife Julie.

Speaker Joe Straus has made long-time budget writer Rep. John Otto the chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

Otto, R-Dayton, is an accountant and property-tax expert who has been the chamber’s lead school-budget writer in past sessions. He will succeed former Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, who retired.

Straus dispensed consolation prizes to Otto’s two rivals for the Appropriations chairmanship. He elevated Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, to be head of the Higher Education Committee. Last session, it was run by former Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas. And Straus gave the Energy Resources chairmanship to Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo.

Rep. John Otto

Straus, R-San Antonio, made the selections as he exercised one of his position’s greatest powers — assigning all 150 House members to the committees that take a first look at legislation.

“With these assignments, I have placed members where I believe they can have the greatest impact on issues that directly relate to our economy and our future,” Straus said in a statement.

Some of Straus’ top lieutenants kept their powerful posts from last session — such as Fort Worth Rep. Charlie Geren at House Administration, Corsicana Rep. Byron Cook at State Affairs and Corpus Christi Rep. Todd Hunter at Calendars, which serves as traffic cop for bills heading to the House floor.

Straus named veteran Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, to run the tax-writing Ways & Means Committee. With tax cuts on the agenda, that could be a crucial pick. Former Chairman Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, left to run unsuccessfully for state comptroller.

Straus restored a Democrat, El Paso Rep. Joe Pickett, to the helm of the Transportation Committee. Former Transportation chief Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, is the new head of Homeland Security & Public Safety.

You can read Straus’ statement and look at the assignments by clicking here.

Lawmakers on Tuesday questioned the unusual way in which Gov. Rick Perry scrounged for cash recently to pay for deploying the National Guard to the Texas-Mexico border.

Instead of asking the Legislative Budget Board to sign off on a “budget execution” transfer of money, Perry invoked a 1993 law to certify an emergency exists because an influx of unaccompanied child migrants from Central America.

Perry, who has said federal border guards are so distracted they can’t deter illegal entries by criminals and even terrorists, has diverted $38.7 million from a Department of Public Safety fund that’s been piling up court-case fees for an expected future state purchase of radio equipment for emergency responders.

The Legislature hasn’t yet given a green light for purchase of the “inter-operable” equipment, which made the money a tempting place for a quick pinch, budget experts said.

Members of the 10-member budget oversight board, which held its annually required meeting Tuesday, though, said they want the radio equipment money replenished.

Several questioned why Perry didn’t ask for their usual approval of proposed money maneuvers when the Legislature is not in session.

Perry could have dipped into his own office’s disaster relief account, which currently holds $63.3 million, said Republican Reps. Drew Darby of San Angelo and John Zerwas of Richmond.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who has supported Perry’s deployment of 1,000 Guard personnel, said he wasn’t thrilled by the method used to foot the tab.

“I would’ve preferred to have gone in almost immediately, right after the activation of the National Guard, and addressed this issue immediately” with a budget execution vote by the board, Dewhurst told reporters. “But apparently the governor’s office felt that was going to take longer.”

The $38.7 million from the radio fund and the use of $3.5 million in federal criminal-justice funds will repay DPS for its stepped-up activity at the border and pay for National Guard costs for two to three months, Dewhurst said.

But he warned that the money will be exhausted by early October. The budget board and Perry’s office will have to look elsewhere in the state budget if they want to extend the Guard’s deployment beyond 90 days, Dewhurst said.

Nelson said, though, that it’s unfair for state taxpayers to bear a cost caused by federal failures in immigration enforcement.

“I sure would like for them [federal officials] to foot the bill so we can spend it on education, water and highways,” she told reporters.

Mike Morrissey, right, Gov. Rick Perry's longtime guru on the state budget, said Tuesday that concern about hurricanes prompted Perry to look beyond his disaster fund for money to pay for National Guard troops at the Mexico border.

House Republicans who sit on the board were more critical of Perry’s emergency declaration, which only involved sending papers back and forth to Comptroller Susan Combs over two business days last week.

“We couldn’t have dealt with this in a budget execution kind of activity?” Zerwas asked Mike Morrissey, Perry’s deputy chief of staff and senior adviser.

Morrissey predicted there will be calls on the $63 million disaster fund Perry controls. He mentioned hurricanes, wildfires and possible disasters such as last year’s deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant in West.

“We are absolutely willing to use some of that money for this purpose,” he said.

He added, “The timing of trying to do budget execution at this meeting was a problem.”

Rep. Sylvester Turner, a Houston Democrat who’s been a top budget writer for more than a decade, said he fears Perry has set a bad precedent. Bypassing the requirement that lawmakers approve a fund shift could embolden future governors, he said.

“The next governor … can declare almost any situation an emergency and then tap funds,” Turner said.
Morrissey, though, said that with 1,100 undocumented immigrants being apprehended each day in South Texas in recent weeks, Perry had to act decisively.

He promised the governor’s office will work with lawmakers in coming weeks to identify unused state money that can be tapped to pay for extended use of the National Guard.

Updated item at 7:14 p.m.: Straus spokesman Jason Embry said Straus supports a solution that “does not expand Medicaid in its current form but utilizes the private sector to make coverage available to more Texans.”

Original item at 3:14 p.m.: In a meeting with House Speaker Joe Straus and his advisers, the Dallas Area Interfaith group made a last-ditch push for Medicaid expansion for more than 1.5 million low-income Texans.

The group met with Dallas representatives and visited the Calendars committee to encourage some movement on a bill by Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, to create a “Texas solution” to reforming Medicaid. The bill has to come out of the committee by midnight to get a hearing and Zerwas is skeptical.

They also presented Straus with 5,000 signatures from the Dallas area, 4,000 signatures from the Houston area and a letter signed by more than 65 clergy members in support of the bill.

“Sometimes the promised land looks pretty far away, and the issue is how do we march forward together,” said Asher Knight, a rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas. “We’re going to continue to march forward, we’re going to continue to work together.”

Willie Bennett, the group’s lead organizer, described the meeting with Straus as “energizing.” The group has been down to the capitol at least seven times this year.

Knight said it was clear that Straus and other members of the Legislature are working hard on expansion and trying to with the Gov. Perry to “create a positive solution.” He said the group will continue to advocate for expansion after the Legislature if nothing happens this time around.

“Straus recognized that there has to be a solution to help people in Texas and the issue is it’s too big to ignore, there’s too much money on the table to leave, the hospitals need it, people need jobs,” Knight said.

Straus spokesman Jason Embry said the speaker enjoyed his visit with faith leaders and appreciates their input.

On Wednesday, the Texas Organizing Project will descend onto the Capitol steps at 10:30 a.m. to hold a rally in favor of Medicaid expansion and Zerwas’ bill before marching up to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s office.

The House’s lead health care budget writer says his bill to force Gov. Rick Perry’s administration to explore the potential for a “Texas solution” on Medicaid expansion is dead.

Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, said Tuesday that his bill outlining an expansion of coverage for poor adults using private insurance, health savings accounts and cost sharing by the beneficiaries “got hung up in Calendars.”

He was referring to the House Calendars Committee, which is the traffic cop deciding which bills go to the House floor — and in what order.

“Wasn’t anybody there to rescue it,” Zerwas said of Calendars and his measure.

Although the Calendars Committee is expected to meet Tuesday, Zerwas said the only way his bill could avoid Thursday’s midnight deadline for passing House bills would be if it were placed on Thursday’s major state calendar. That would bump it ahead of scores of bills.

“I don’t think that’s in the cards at all,” said Zerwas, chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on health and human services.

Perry and some GOP legislative leaders have said Texas will pass on the federal health care law’s inducements for states to expand Medicaid to cover poor adults. Forgoing the expansion means the state will pass up tens of billions in federal Medicaid dollars. Hospitals, nursing homes and front-line doctors strongly support Zerwas’ efforts to see if there’s a possible middle course between state leaders’ hostility to having anything to do with the federal law and the state’s woeful status as the place with a bigger share of its residents uninsured than any other state.

“I’m disappointed,” Zerwas said. “It’s one of the biggest issues of the session and we didn’t really have the robust debate I thought we should have. But people on the pay scale above me made the decision.”

A divided and wary House panel on Tuesday advanced a bill that would order Gov. Rick Perry’s administration to see if it can negotiate a way to tap billions of federal Medicaid dollars that are available so Texas could expand health coverage to low-income adults, using private insurance and health savings accounts.

The revised bill by Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, cleared the House Appropriations Committee, 15-9.

It would, among other things, attempt to appease hospital leaders and urban county judges and commissioners who are irate over state GOP leaders’ apparent determination to walk away from about $100 billion in additional federal funds that Texas could draw down over the next decade. The money would flow to Texas if it expands Medicaid to more adults — a move that would pull forward to government coverage more than 400,000 poor children who are already eligible but haven’t enrolled. Texas would have to put up just more than $15 billion of its money through 2023.

Perry and other Republican leaders have rejected expanding traditional Medicaid to cover adults whose household incomes are under 138 percent of the federal poverty level — or about $15,500 a year for a single, childless person. It’s a key feature of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

Senate GOP leaders have tried to coax Perry and his team to negotiate a “Texas solution” that would tap into the money, though their budget provision offering guidance makes seeking a deal with federal officials purely optional for the Republican governor.

The bill by Zerwas, though, would at least force Team Perry to go through the motions. Governors in other states have reached some deals with federal Medicaid czars, some involving private insurance subsidies as an alternative to traditional Medicaid.

The Texas House, which on Monday learned which five House members will negotiate the state budget with the Senate, quickly issued them a marching order: Don’t vote for anything that could expand Medicaid.

The chamber voted, 77-68, to instruct its budget negotiators not to vote for any provision that would expand eligibility for Medicaid or authorizes a state agency to expand Medicaid eligibility. Medicaid is the state-federal health insurance program for the poor, elderly and disabled. Under President Barack Obama’s health care law, more than 1 million low income adults would be added to Texas’ Medicaid rolls by 2017.

Meanwhile, House members overwhelmingly defeated a Democrat’s bid to tell the chamber’s budget negotiators to use any available money to further undo last session’s $5.3 billion in school cuts.

Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, named these five state representatives to serve on a newly formed House-Senate conference committee on the budget: Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie; Sylvester Turner, D-Houston; John Otto, R-Dayton; Myra Crownover, R-Denton; and John Zerwas, R-Richmond.

Gov. Rick Perry, right, is introduced by Ted Houghton, chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, at a Texas Lyceum conference on infrastructure Friday.

Update at 12:55 p.m.: Sen. Tommy Williams has responded to Perry’s comment, issuing this statement through spokesman Gary Scharrer: “We haven’t heard from the governor on this, so we would be glad to discuss it with him.” (Note: This post has been corrected. Voters passed the rainy day fund amendment in 1988, not 1987.)

Original item at 12:20 p.m.: Gov. Rick Perry has urged lawmakers to sit on $7 billion of rainy day money, and says a Texas Senate plan that would use $6 billion from the fund for water and infrastructure projects is “a little too much.”

Perry, speaking to reporters after meeting behind closed doors with the House Republican Caucus, said “approximately $7 billion is what needs to stay in the rainy day fund.”

That would provide an adequate cushion in case of a major natural disaster, he said. Perry cited floods and what happens if “a Level 5 tornado hits a city like Dallas.”

The $7 billion also would be sufficient to assure that Wall Street bond rating agencies “continue to give us the best rating” on state bond issues, the Republican governor said.

Update at 2:07 p.m.: Meghan Weller, Zerwas’ chief of staff, says the rewritten bill I’ve described below sounds very much like Zerwas’ “first committee substitute.” That revision apparently is undergoing more surgery. “There will be another one with additional changes available tomorrow morning,” she said in an email.

Original item at 1:59 p.m.: A leading House health policy writer is back from the drawing board.

Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, is poised to recommend a three-step action plan for Texas as an alternative to the federal health care law’s Medicaid expansion. It would force something to happen, at least by the second year of the upcoming two-year budget cycle. But Zerwas’ third option, for a state-based premium assistance plan, probably would lead to only a modest expansion of coverage because it wouldn’t touch a dime of the federal money being offered.

Zerwas is expected to offer the three-pronged plan on Tuesday as a committee substitute for his “Texas solution” bill before a House Appropriations subcommittee on budget transparency panel and reform.

First, it recommends that Texas strongly encourage Congress to convert Medicaid to a block grant program under which states would receive a capped amount of federal funds and be freed to operate the health insurance program for the poor, elderly and disabled as they chose. However, the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate and President Barack Obama almost surely would oppose “block granting” Medicaid.

Failing that, Zerwas’ revised bill would order state social services overlord Kyle Janek to seek a waiver or other needed authorization from the Obama administration that would allow Texas to cover working age adults whose income is under 138 percent of the federal poverty level through a premium assistance program that would be “cost neutral to this state.”

They would buy private insurance plans, using the billions in federal matching funds offered under Medicaid expansion. The state would contribute new health insurance premium tax revenues expected under the federal law’s rollout of state exchanges next year. Leveraging the extra premium tax revenue and achieving cost savings would prevent any additional burdens on the state budget, his new bill stresses.

“Not an entitlement,” it reads, stressing there would be expanded coverage “through private market solutions.”